Solstice
by HungUp
Summary: The curtains were opened, the chandeliers were lit, the silver was polished, and it was determined to be a very fine summer solstice party in Saillune Palace tonight. Xellos, ACTUALLY INVITED, has some orders to carry out, but what he's up to isn't quite clear. Xellos/Filia


Author's Note: My first crack at writing a Slayers-focused series! Please be kind as I am totally out of practice with writing. This will be a Xellos and Filia focused story, so if you don't like them, I warn ye to turn around now.

Summer Solstice

The curtains were opened, the chandeliers were lit, the silver was polished, and it was determined to be a very fine summer solstice party in Saillune Palace tonight.

Xellos, set out by his Lord, was to rendezvous with the infamous Lina Inverse and her friends.

"You have your orders," Lord Beastmaster had intoned in a haze of cigarette smoke, one long bare leg suggestively crossed over the other.

"Yes, Lord Beastmaster." He had replied as he always did to his master.

Xelloss grabbed a champagne coupe from a passing tray in the bustling ballroom. He was certainly ready to party.

It only took minutes after he arrived for Lina and her band of usual misfits to sense his presence and walk over with sour looks on their faces.

Their collective cries of "Xellos!" was old hat by now to him.

"Well hello again, everyone," Xellos greeted with a jovial wave. Amelia was kind enough to wave back but-

"What are you doing here," Zelgadis growled. Lina, decked in a lovely shade of buttercup and clearly not used to walking in heels, rolled her eyes at the priest as she took a bite out of the turkey leg in her hand. Gourry was by her side, donning a smart tux and another half-eaten turkey leg.

"I was invited," Xellos replied.

Everyone turned a frosty gaze to a certain princess.

"It was the just thing to do. I invited all of our traveling companions," peeped Amelia, swathed in aqua ruffles and pearls. Adjusting her crown, she finished "and, anyway, I didn't think Mr. Xellos would actually show up!"

Xellos continued to smile and was about to reply when -

"Are you kidding me?!" came another disappointed voice behind the group.

Well, well. And who should be striding up to them like a lightning storm but the infamously self ex-communicated Filia Ul Copt.

The dragon had finally ditched the headdress, but she was still favoring an all-white ensemble: a long, simple sleeveless white gown that hugged every curve of her body. Though it was a rather daring dress for an ex-priestess, Filia managed to wear it as if she were cloaked in a nun's habit. Xellos noticed the high slit in the skirt with a raised eyebrow.

"Filia!" Amelia cried, hugging the dragoness immediately. Lina and Gourry each patted her on the shoulders, wide smiles on their faces.

"It's good to see you, Filia," said Lina. Zelgadis nodded to her with a small smile as well. "How are you?"

"Miss Filia," Xellos sing-songed, diverting all attention back to him. "You look," and he gave her a loooong look here, "…healthy."

"You!" Though they had an understanding when the end of the world was near, looks like that alliance proved to be temporary. She pulled out her mace from her slit and leveled it with his smile. Xellos regarded her coolly.

"Now, now, this isn't that kind of party, Filia." Then, as if coming to a sudden realization, he pounded his fist into his hand. "Ah! I see your leaving the Fire Dragon King's order was all for the best. Those poor shrine maidens must have been freaked out with you roaming the halls."

Filia sputtered before volleying back "You're the one that freaks everyone out!"

"Anyway," Xellos sweeped his attention to Lina. "How are _you_? Still breathing, I see."

"I'm here to have a good time, not to deal with mazoku issues," Lina replied, finishing her turkey leg and throwing the bone into a nearby crowd of royalty.

"Can't old friends catch up?"

"You don't have friends!" Filia called behind him. His smile twitched at that.

"She's right," Lina said with a shrug. She grabbed a platter of cocktail weenies from an unsuspecting waiter and tipped it into her mouth. Xellos could almost hear their cocktail weenie screams. "This isn't like you: fishing for information so openly."

Xellos shrugged. "Fine, don't tell me what you have been up to. I'm just making conversation."

Filia narrowed her eyes in suspicion. She pushed Gourry (so unlucky to be standing between her and the priest!) to the ground, getting right in Xellos' face. Xellos smiled placidly as the dragon practically touched his nose with hers.

"What is garbage like you doing at a royal ball?"

"What is a poor salesman doing at a royal ball?"

Filia sucked in a breath.

"I do very well!"

"Oh do you?" he said in a tone to suggest she was being _very quaint_ , " Well, everyone has a different measure of success, I suppose."

Amelia, standing a bit too close to the fire now consuming Filia's body, eeked away as the dragon's tail popped out.

"At least I have a job! You're just a slave!"

It was as if all life and light were sucked into Xellos' aura at this moment.

The Beast Priest opened his eyes.

And with that, everyone in present company slid their heels to the other side of the room where the buffet conveniently lay.

Everyone except Filia, of course, who, while wilting in the current of Xellos' energy, refused to back down from where she stood.

"Miss Filia," Xellos began.

Filia narrowed her eyes, but could not stop the horrific reaction of gulping. Damn her body's natural responses to, y'know, murderous trash.

He continued, "I'd caution you to remember who I am. And what I can do."

They stood there, glaring at one another, for an uncomfortably long time. The darkness eminating from Xellos continued to saturate everything around them.

"Do you remember now?"

Finally, achingly slow, Filia turned her cheek to him…and nodded. It was so slight any one could have missed it. But Xellos saw it. More importantly, he _felt_ it. He felt that quick wave of fear radiate off her, and then it was gone in a wisp. That fear was, he admitted to himself, quite potent.

And at once, the raw dark energy dissipated and Xellos closed his eyes and smiled sunnily.

"Good!" Then, looking around, he called "Oh, it looks as though everyone has left us for the buffet. Now that we have our…situation…settled, Miss Filia, would you like to dance?"

It was at that exact line that the band started to play and couples started to make their way on the dance floor.

Filia picked her jaw off the ground. "Are you serious?"

"Of course!" he replied with good cheer. Not waiting for her reply, and utilizing her shock to his advantage, he took her hand in his own and led her to the dance floor. "I assume your clan taught you enough civility to dance with a partner."

Xellos was fluid in his movements, but undeniably firm in his hold. Filia could not leave his grasp, though she tried to.

"You'll get it with practice," he said regarding her two left feet with a smile. And then she fell and ruined another couple's graceful turn.

"Of course I will," she snapped back, trying to ignore her flush of embarrassment. Dancing wasn't an important holy skill. It's _completely_ reasonable that she wouldn't know how it, y'know, worked with a male partner.

"That's quite a getup," he smiled.

"At least I change my clothes every now and then," she retorted.

The corners of his mouth threatened to twitch.

He continued to lead her with all of the grace in the world, and she continued to falter now and then, ruining his perfect form.

"So, tell me, where have you moved your shop to? Last time I visited Atlas City, it looked as though you've vacated your building."

Filia could feel the prickle of goose bumps forming on her skin.

"Have you been spying on me?" she yelled. The other party people immediately snapped their necks toward the odd couple on the dance floor.

"That's rather presumptuous," he replied, sidestepping an answer, and choosing this moment to dip her. "You don't want to cause a scene, do you?"

In this dipped position, Filia tried her draconic strength again to break from Xellos' grip, but no dice.

He tsked at that as his face hovered over hers.

"Now, now, I think we have more catching up to do," he said.

Filia, uncomfortable with their closeness, turned her head and caught sight of an upside-down Amelia desperately shaking her head vigorously and waving her hands as if to say, "Please, do NOT ruin this party." Filia, the picture of politeness when it came to society and public events and all things not related to mazoku scum, decided at that moment that indeed she would not ruin Amelia's party. She would not give Xellos that sick satisfaction.

"I'm not going to tell you were I've moved to," she gritted.

He regarded her, almost measuring something unseen.

"No, I didn't think you would." And that was that. He lifted her back from his dip and continued their dance.

Filia was immediately suspicious, but didn't press further as she did NOT want to be talking to Xellos about anything at all if she could help it.

They were silent for awhile, then -

"Who are you looking for?"

"What?"

"You keep looking for someone in the crowd," he stated.

"No one," she muttered, though that was not true.

He spun her and she took the turn a little better this time.

Xellos looked to the crowd. But there was no one of seeming consequence.

"It's not very polite to look for another partner while dancing." That came out with a bit more edge than he would have liked.

"I'd hardly look to you as a measure of politeness!"

They swished again in a showy turn, and Xellos could have let her stumble and fall, but he didn't. And then the song ended. And he let his hands slide off of her.

"You're free to look for no one now," he said.

Filia stomped away, glad to finally be free of the monster's hold. But as she rejoined the party crowd, she couldn't help but wonder what the hell all that back there was about.


End file.
